After It All
by Dont-Ever-Forget
Summary: Everything was different for Joe. He was a hero, his dad was now there for him, and he got the girl he had been crushing on for some time. But after what happened, he felt like his life would never be normal.   Post-movie Joe/Alice
1. Chapter 1

When Joe woke up, he felt different. Life had been shifted, in his eyes, for the better. He was a hero, his dad was now there for him, and he got the girl he had been crushing on for some time. He couldn't help but smile as he lay on his back with his arms behind his head staring at the ceiling. After running the memories of the past few days through his mind he got up and got dressed. He walked down the hallway and into the kitchen to find a note from his Dad on the table.

_Had to go to work early. Be back late. Have fun, be safe. Dad_

Joe just grinned at it, it was like the usual note he wrote when he had to go to work early but the "Have fun, be safe" part was new. He set the note back on the table and went out the front door. The town looked much different. Quite a bit was burned. Half of houses stood here and there from where he could see. The garage on his own house was lost but he wasn't feeling too bad about it. He was hoping that it would lead to something that he could do with his Dad together by rebuilding it. Joe smirked at the idea looking at the charred part of his home. He looked away and found his bike at the bottom of the driveway, and rode it across the road to Charles house. He knocked and could hear someone shout to come in, like usual.

"Hey Joe!" Charles called to him from behind the kitchen table covered in food and surrounded by his siblings. "Your here great, the dead line for the film festive is coming up and I was hoping to get more filming in today, do you think you could get..." Charles was cut short by his mother who saw Joe walk up to the table.

"Hello Joe dear, would you like some lunch?"

"Um yeah, that would be great." How long did he sleep in? It made sense that he would sleep in late, he finally got home, washed and fell asleep sometime around four in the morning.

"Hope you and your father got some sleep after that crazy day yesterday." Said Charles' mother picking the youngest child up from a chair and wiped some food off his face.

"I was able to get some sleep, don't know about my dad though he went to work before I woke up."

"Your father is a hard worker, hope he doesn't stress himself out with fixing this town." Charles just stared at his mother with an annoyed face for being interrupted during all of Joe's conversation with Mrs. Kasnick.

"Well Joe is fine, so is his father," Charles confirmed to his mother and turned to talk to Joe, leaving her to roll her eyes and leave the room. "Now I need you to get your fathers camera and come back here. The others should be here soon."

A small grin grew on Joe's face for his best friend. They were lucky to still be alive and all he was thinking about was his movie. He sat down at the table with Charles and had lunch. They talked about last night. His family wasn't able to get back into town until the fires were stopped and got home very early in the morning, same as most of the town. Charles told how he had to help Martin find his parents so they could take him to the hospital for his leg and explain the situation to them, they freaked out, but that was expected.

"What happened to you? I thought you were dead or the air force took you or abducted."

Joe laughed at his mixed thoughts taking a sandwich from the plate Mrs. Kasnick set on the table. He was about to start his story when Cary, Preston, and Alice walked into the house. Cary entered first and was shouting about his bravery last night with Preston following and giving a look like the whole story was exaggerated. Alice was smiling at them when she walked in but when she looked at Joe her smile grew bigger and her cheeks gained a slight blush. Joe beamed at her as she walked to him and took the chair next to him. He turned to talk to her but Charles took all eyes on him when he shouted for everyone to shut up and told his siblings to beat it from the table so everyone had a seat.

"Joe was about to tell me what happened last night before you all barged in"

"You invited us, remember?" Preston added.

"Oh shut up so he can tell it, alright? I'm sure you want to hear it to since you wimped out."

"Hey!"

"You should have seen it! The whole town was blowing you and there was..."

"Cary! I said shut up!"

Joe told what happened and told it just like it really was. He didn't feel the need to exaggerate. He started with running to the graveyard and finding the monster's hideout by the cemetery, then saving Alice with Cary's help, as Joe was reminded, and being trapped by the monster. He explained how he connected with it and knew what it was thinking and feeling, and how it must have done the same to him. He told how it built a model with metal from the town and the cubes, made a ship, and flew away. Joe left out the more emotional side of the event with his Dad and Alice. He continued telling them about being questioned for two hours by the air force, and then released to go home.

"What kind of question did they ask?" Charles asked.

Joe opened his mouth to answer.

"Did you have to take test and stuff? Were you drugged so they could get answers?" Cary continued to rattle on with obscure questions. Charles let out a loud sigh and rolled his eyes. Preston looked around the table confused then asked where Martin was.

"He's in the hospital, remember?" Charles said giving him a stupid look.

"No, what happened?"

"We were hiding in this house then it blew up, he broke his leg and I fixed it, well tried, and his parents took him to the hospital last night."

"Oh, didn't know that."

"Of course not! You stayed behind because you thought we would die!" Cary interjected.

"Well it was good thing I stayed behind or your Dad," Preston turned to Joe, "Would have not of found you."

"You gave him the film?" Charles asked.

"Yeah, after he threatened to throw me in jail if I didn't tell him where Joe was."

"Does he still have it? Because I needed that and you gave it away!"

"And I never saw it!" Cary added.

The three of them continued to bicker as Joe thought over Preston's words. Was that how his Dad knew to find him? Joe wondered if he was looking for him at the shelter or if someone told him he was missing. Alice must have known what Joe was thinking. She leaned closer to him so she could be heard over the argument.

"My Dad told me last night, that your Dad stole an air force uniform to find you. I guess he used it to get my Dad from them to come find us."

"I wondered why he was wearing that last night." Joe wondered out loud.

"Joe," She leaned forward and grabbed his forearm, "He wants to thank you, my Dad, for saving me last night but never had the chance." She leaned in closer and Joe felt like his body completely shut down as she got even closer and kissed his cheek. "And so do I." She gave a small smile and leaned back in her chair just in time before Charles started to give orders.

"Alright, as Preston here so kindly reminded me that we can't film today because we have no Martin, our main actor," He stood up from the table, and Joe snapped out of his little coma. She just kissed him on the cheek, which proves that she likes him too, right?

"So that means that we need to see how quickly he can get back on his feet." Charles started for the door and the rest all stood from the table and followed him. Outside there was a mound of bikes and Joe detangled his from the bottom.

The ride to the hospital was mostly silent. The group rode slowly through town looking at all the damage inflicted upon the town. Houses were burned down, debris lay in the streets, and the worst was watching people dig through it all for belongings. Military personnel were still in town cleaning up their supplies spread through town and trying to help Lillian in any way possible. Joe looked at Alice as she watched people cleaning the remains of their houses and she looked like she was on the verge of tears. At that moment all Joe wanted to do was to hug her, and he didn't understand why.

When Joe reached the hospital he placed his bike in the bike rack with the rest of the group's and started to walk to the front door. As he grabbed the door to the hospital opened by Charles he felt a hand slip into his. He stopped in the doorway and Alice pulled him through smiling at him.

"Come on," She said still holding his hand, "Don't want Charles to get angry." Joe walked hand in hand with her following the others to the woman behind the front desk. Cary asked for Martin's room rather rudely and Joe thanked her after she gave them the room number. When they reached the room, Martin's lower left leg had a cast and he was a sleep.

"Oh no!" Charles shouted when he saw Martin. "We're never going to get my movie done on time! How can I direct someone who has to wobble around? What am I going to do about this?" He looked to the others and pointed at Martin.

"You could leave him alone." Martin must have woken up when Charles started complaining.

"Martin!" They all shouted.

He opened his eyes and grabbed his glasses from the bedside table. "Hey guys."

Joe spoke first. "How's your leg?"

Martin looked at Joe then looked at his hand still holding Alice's. Joe let go of her hand before anyone else noticed, and she must have had the same idea because he could've sworn that her hand started to let go of his first. He gave Joe a weird look then answered him. "It could be better, but it's alright and it doesn't hurt right now. "

"Really? That's great!" Charles said next "When you start walking again?"

"I was told I could get crutches and leave the hospital when my parents get back to check me out."

"No I mean WALKING, I need you to be the detective, you know, for my film?"

"When are your parents getting back?" Preston asked.

"An hour or two I think, they went back home to fix things up." Martin answered ignoring Charles.

"I guess we just have to wait for your parents now." Charles said a little frustrated and took the seat by Martin's bed.

"Sweet!" Cary had a very excited look of his face. "I've always wanted to play in a hospital!"

Everyone looked at him.

"Cary, what are you talking about?" Martin said concerned.

The group spent their time riding in the halls on gurneys, dressing up like doctors pretending to work there, and pushing Charles down a flight of stairs in a wheelchair. All resulted in them looking for a place to hide for the hospital guards. When Martins parents came and finally checked him out, all of them had managed to gain small cuts and bruises, but to them all it was worth it. Cary tried to make a joke telling them that it was funny that they were injured in a hospital; Charles just told him he was an idiot. They all walked outside to a nice, warm and sunny, summer afternoon. It was quickly ruined by someone shouting at them.

**"THERE THEY ARE!"**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you so much everyone that read this! Thank you NoelAnderson, Super8-Lover, Corbeau Noir, Jonuda, SadieMayBlue2, and Ajs8 for the reviews for the first chapter!**

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><p>There was a flash and Joe momentarily saw only white.<p>

"How did you find the monster?"

"Do you think you were abducted?"

"How does it feel to be the one that saved your town?"

"Did the monster break your leg?"

"Where did those cuts come from?"

"What was your motivation to come back into town after it was evacuated?"

A group of journalists and broadcasters faced them in front of the hospital. They bombarded the kids with questions and drowned them in flashes from their cameras. They were frozen and had no idea of what to do next. Joe was the first to react.

"Guys! Come on, let's go!"

They all nodded and agreed, running with Joe to their bikes. Martin shouted that he would meet them at Charles house and went with his parents to their car. Joe led the rest away from the hospital. He looked behind him as he started to gain speed. He could see some people run after them, then lose speed and stop.

"What was that all about?" Cary shouted.

"I don't know!" Joe shouted back and looked at everyone else to see if they had answers. Preston looked out of breath and Charles was cussing and mumbling to himself. Alice was the one who answered.

"Do you think it was about last night?"

"Yeah, I guess, maybe." He really was confused, she could be right though. They pulled up to Charles driveway and jumped off their bikes, letting them crash to the ground.

"If that's true, about them wanting to know about last night," Charles looked around at everyone, "Then should we have stayed, and answered them?" They all thought about it and walked inside. All but Charles sat down on the couches in the living room and he paced around the room.

The room was silent for quite a while and then Preston broke it. "Maybe we were suppose to talk to them."

"Don't be stupid!" Cary gave him a look like he was an idiot. "Haven't you watched TV? They away attack the person with questions then blame them for something!"

Charles stopped pacing "But what if other people want to know what happened to our town! We would be the perfect people to talk to!"

Joe wanted to participate in this conversation but all he noticed was how close Alice was sitting next to him. He felt like if he moved even the tiniest bit that he would bump into her shoulder.

Quickly the topic changed from wanting nothing to do with reporters, to what it would be like to be on TV and all over the news. Then there was a knock on the door and Martin came in. He had difficulty getting through the door with his crutches, but managed to make it in safely. He made it to the living room and sat on the other side of Alice. Joe saw Martin notice how close they were sitting next to each other, and Alice apparently saw it too by gently scooting away from Joe. Why did she do that? It was the second time she moved herself away from him like that. Maybe he needed to talk to her about it.

The group spent the rest of their afternoon in Charles living room, first talking about what they would do with their reporter situation and what they agreed on was hide until it was physically impossible, probably not the smartest plan, but that was what they got. They talked about the film, summer, next school year, and enjoyed their time together for the rest of the afternoon, for the first time this summer. They knew that their problems weren't over, but it felt good for them to pretend that they were.

Sometime around eight they decided that it would be safe to go home. Joe walked outside first and picked up his bike. Alice was right behind him, and he really wanted to talk to her. He pulled his bike over to where she was picking her bike off the ground.

"Hey, um, Alice?"

"Yes?" She turned away from her bike and faced him. Her hair softly blew in the light breeze and she seemed to glow. Joe had to struggle to remember what he was going to say to her.

"I, well, I was wondering if you, um, wanted to do something tomorrow," Why in the world could he not speak clearly to her? "You know, without the guys."

He looked at her for her reaction and it was more than he expected. Her face lit up and she nodded.

"Yeah, I would love too."

He grinned. "Really?"

Alice laughed at him, "Yes." She stepped forward and started to get real close. He didn't realize that he had managed to step forward also. Joe could feel his heart start to speed up, but something stopped him from doing anything else. There was a loud crack behind him and he quickly moved away from her. Looking back at the others he saw that Cary had lit a firecracker under Martins cast.

"What is your problem? I'm hurt and your just trying to make things worse aren't you?" Martin was hysterical, he even gagged.

Cary just stood by him laughing with tears in his eyes. "Sorry man," he took a deep breath, "I just wanted to see if you would throw up."

"Wow, that was really mature Cary" Preston said to him, giving support to Martin who lost his balance.

"It was worth his reaction though!" He was still laughing.

Charles looked like he was ignoring the whole situation and walked over to where Joe was standing next to Alice.

"So tomorrow," He said with an official tone. "I was thinking that we could film the doctor scene since Martin wouldn't have to move very much" He was talking mostly to Joe, and then he turned toward Alice. "We don't need you for this scene, but if you want to come and watch you can, I guess."

She smiled and said that she would think about it. Joe noticed that she had a small blush on her cheeks. He wondered if that was because of earlier. He smiled hoping that it was.

Joe rode home after Cary stuck a pack of lit sparklers in Martins jacket hood and when they fell out he was unable to stomp them out with his one leg setting a small fire to his pant leg. Martin then threw up all over the driveway and Charles threatened to kill Cary because he was the one who would have to clean up the mess. Joe was actually embarrassed by his friends standing next to Alice, who was laughing, but looked grossed out; He wished that she would still like them, even after that.

His Dad's patrol car was missing from the driveway, and when he entered the house he was nowhere to be seen. Joe wanted his Dad to be home so that, maybe, they could talk. It didn't look like that was going to happen. He walked to the TV to waste some time, but when it didn't turn on he remembered that the power was out. He fell on the couch, planning to wait for him, but sleep quickly hit him.

Joe woke up when his father shook his shoulder. He looked exhausted.

"Hey." He said to Joe as he sat up from the couch. Joe yawned and rubbed his eye.

"I tried to stay up to talk to you, but guess I fell asleep, sorry." Joe said sincere and his dad hugged him. It felt odd, and Joe wanted to believe that this would become a normal thing for them.

"Don't be sorry, it's my fault for coming home at midnight. I just had a lot of things to do today."

"Dad it's fine, really." Joe looked at his Dad and he nodded at Joe, taking his response. Joe stared at the ground, and then remembered what he wanted to talk to his Dad about.

"Um, so I was leaving the hospital with Charles, Cary, Preston, Martin, and Alice and there were reporters outside, and they asked us a whole bunch of questions," His dad stiffened, Joe stopped talking for a second then continued. "We didn't know what to do, so we ran away and hid at Charles house." His Dad gave him a very serious look.

"I want you to stay away from them, ok?" Joe nodded. "I have been working to get them out of town all day, and from what I understand is that someone, from this town, let slip to a news broadcast about you and your friends. I'm trying to do my best to protect you." He stood up from the couch and looked down at Joe with a tired expression. "Why don't you go to bed, it's been a long day."

Joe got up from the couch, said goodnight to his Dad, and sleepily made his way to his bedroom. He kicked his shoes off and crawled into bed. His Dad's bedroom door could be heard being shut and Joe closed his eyes. Just when he was about to fall asleep there was a knock on his window.

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><p><strong>I feel like these first two chapters are a little rough, but I kinda wrote them to introduce the characters. I promise it will get better! Much more JoeAlice! **

**Now I have one question, I was planning on writing this mostly from Joe, but I was thinking about switching from Joe to Alice every other chapter but I can't decide! So give me your thoughts and review this chapter also!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you Pixie Longforest and Katelle26 for reviewing chapter 2!**

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><p>Alice lay in her bed wide awake and staring at the ceiling. She couldn't sleep. She wasn't able to get more than an hour of sleep all night. It's not that she hadn't tried; she just wakes up shortly after she falls asleep in a sweat. The same thing happened to her last night when she got home late after the monster flew away. Her Dad was the one that she would talk to about this, but she didn't want him to worry. After all the events that happened to him also, adding his daughter with unexplainable nightmares was not at the top of the list to tell him. Taking his words to leave to heart, and leaving was at the top, so many things would be easier for him if she just ignored him and went to bed.<p>

She rolled over and looked at her clock on her bedside table. It was almost one. She groaned and rolled back over. This was going to be the longest night. Closing her eyes, Alice thought about what happened earlier: all of the reporters, hiding at Charles house, and Martin throwing up. She smirked at that last one, Joe looked so embarrassed.

Joe.

She had an idea.

Alice threw back her covers and got out of bed. She changed out of her pajamas and into something warm. She tiptoed down the stairs and saw her Dad passed out on the couch. As quietly as she could, she managed to open the front door and slip outside. She grabbed her bike that she had left by the side of the house and got on. Alice left her house and headed down the street. As she passed block by block the smell of ash was the only scent in the air. She couldn't see much, mostly by street lights running on backup power as she weaved through streets and neighborhoods. Then she found the house she was looking for. She pulled up to the curb and dropped her bike running passed the burned garage, and around to the back of the house. She was lucky that she lived in the more outskirts of town, where her house was not touched by fire or Air Force. Alice raised her hand to the window and knocked. It was silent inside so she knocked again. There was a sound of things being pushed over, and then she saw him.

Joe looked through the window at her and opened it up.

"Are you ok?" There was concern in his voice behind the tiredness.

She just smiled at him, "Yes, I'm fine."

"Uh, do you want to come in?"

She nodded and started to climb through the window. She grabbed his outstretched hand and let him help her into the room. When she found her footing and balanced herself Alice found that she was left staring into his eyes. They were so dark; they were deep and looked like there was a mystery to them, but at the same time soft, and innocent. When she realized that she was still holding Joe's hand and had been staring at him for a couple seconds, she dropped his hand looked down at her shoes and took a step back. After a deep breath she looked back at him and tucked some of her hair behind her ear.

"I'm sorry for coming over so late. It's just that I can't sleep, and I was hoping that you could help me."

"Yeah, of course."

"Well it's just that I don't know who to talk to." Alice folded her arms and put all of her weight on one leg. "I haven't been able to sleep, today or yesterday. I wake up each hour feeling like I had a nightmare, but don't remember if I did." She paused. "Is this happening to you?"

He shook his head. "No."

She walked around the bedroom finding a clean space on the floor and sitting down, leaning against his deck.

"It's weird." She said as he sat across from her, with his back to the wooden chest at the end of his bed.

"I want to know what is scaring me, but at the same time I don't." She let out a deep sigh. "I almost want to forget everything that happened."

"Anyone would." Joe answered.

She looked at him, and then pulled her eyebrows together. "How are you handling this so well?"

Joe had confusion etched in his face, and held it for a short time before letting it fall.

"I know this sounds stupid, but right now, I feel better than I have in the last four months."

Alice let out a small laugh. "I don't think anyone would expect that answer from someone who was in the hands of a man eating alien."

He joined in on her laugh. When they both stopped the atmosphere in the room drastically changed, from light and friendly, to heavy.

Alice looked at Joe and saw that he was staring at his hands with a sad expression in his eyes. The heavy air carried on for a few minutes, and then Joe started to speak.

"I never cried about my Mom." His eyes were still at his hands.

She had questions for him right then with that one sentence but remained silent, knowing that this could possibly be much more difficult to him then she thought. One of the questions was why he brought this up.

"I just never wanted to believe it. I feel numb when I think about her, like she was never there in the first place, but I can remember her clearly." Joe stopped and looked like he was going to stop talking but continued. "It's hard to watch my Dad cry about her, and not have the same feelings about her death."

He looked up at her and she could see the pain in his eyes.

His hand went to his pocket and then he pulled it away empty handed.

"The locket was the only thing I really had of her." His eyes became distant, like he was remembering something. He opened his mouth to say more but quickly closed it and looked down at the floor.

Alice hurt watching him, her mother left when she was four and didn't leave many memories behind. Joe had his mother until he was thirteen and it was obvious to everyone that he was closer to her than his father. When she died things must have been extremely difficult between them. Alice remembered when they started filming, and his friends would ask if his father knew where he was, and Joe would just shake his head and look away or change the subject. The sad part was the whole town knew of this problem. They knew that Deputy Lamb loved his son, but not as much as his wife, for he never showed it or expressed it in anyway. They lived in a small town with little gossip to talk about, so the difficulty between the Lambs was highly discussed. She saw it happen even at school. She was a grade above him, and his tragic life story would be talked about in her grade without him knowing.

There was hope inside her that after everything that Joe had done in the past couple days would help things between him and his father.

She did have one question for him though.

"Why did you let go?" He looked away from the floor and looked back at her. She could read the emotions running through his eyes, and it briefly caught her off guard.

"The locket, why did you let it go?"

"Oh, um," He took a deep breath, "I wanted to let go of it because I felt like it was holding me down." He finished the sentence with the air he was holding. "I felt that maybe if I let go, I could stop the space growing between my Dad and me, leave all of our troubles behind us."

What Joe was saying was eating her up inside. It was strange; she had never felt this way for anyone, ever. Alice looked down at her own hands and the room grew with silence, it wasn't awkward or uncomfortable, but calm, lighter.

"Alice?" She looked back at Joe, and he gave the appearance that the earlier conversation was gone, almost like he had forgotten it.

"When we were at the hospital, and when we were sitting next to each other on the couch at Charles' house, why you moved away when Martin noticed," he swallowed, "noticed us?"

"Oh," She felt a blush creep up onto her cheeks and she looked down in an attempt to hide it. "Well there is this boy, and I've had this crush on him for the past couple days, and I want to get to know him better. I want to tell him or express to him that I like him, but don't know when and when his friends spot me trying to get closer to him it brings me back to earth and reminds me that I'm being stupid." Alice nervously looked from her hands to his face. He looked stunned.

She grinned and stood up from the floor. As she walked to the window and pushed it back open he was still staring into space contemplating her words. She climbed onto his desk and started to climb out his window then paused.

"Thank you for the talk." Joe slowly nodded his head, not moving his eyes, and then seemed to snap and beamed up at her like he had been given the greatest news on the planet.

"Yeah, thank you also, it felt good to tell someone about my mother."

She copied his smile. "Don't forget about our date later, ok?" She turned and jumped out his window before she could see his reaction.

Alice rode home with a smile on her face, and still had it when she snuck back in the house, finding her father in the same place she had left him, and falling back into her bed. Her late night trip was worth every second. What she learned was that, for a fact, that she liked him, and he liked her.

That night she slept until the morning, with nothing waking her up.

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><p><strong>I hope you liked this chapter! Also, please review so I know how this story is going so far!<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**Thank you so much NoelAnderson, Karmine, Katelle26, Bella Perryman, Kayla, Jessie Davis, Hails, Taylor, avita22, Jelissa, Siriusly cool48, iluvfantasy123, Wiz in Traning, Little miss firebug22, Rosie, Super8-Lover, Ajs8, and SadieMayBlue2 for the super amazing reviews!**

**BTW: I hope everyone out there has bought the Super 8 soundtrack! Because I know I did!**

**Track number 20 is my favorite!**

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><p>Joe stood behind the camera impatiently. He shifted his weight from foot to foot as he tried to give the appearance of showing any interest to what was happening before him. As Charles acted like a doctor with a cure for zombies, Joe's mind was in a world of his own. Alice was what had left him zoned out all day. She had knocked on his window late at night and made him feel like the happiest boy alive.<p>

When the morning had come and he had stumbled into the kitchen with a grin stuck on his face, he found his Dad sitting at the table. He asked why he was so happy, and Joe had dropped his smile putting on an act of it never being there, and answered him by asking what he was talking about. His Dad had just laughed at him, and told Joe that he would be home again late, and to not get in any trouble. Joe had nodded as his Dad put on his belt holding his gun and headed out the door. Joe had thought about eating but the rest of his day was the only thing that he could think about at that moment. He had skipped breakfast and had run over to Charles house, so they could hopefully, quickly get the filming over before Alice came.

"Joe!" He looked up from the camera at Charles.

"Hey, so we're done, and you're wasting my film." Joe quickly turned off the camera and apologized. Charles, Martin, and Cary looked at Joe.

"Dude, where did you go?" Cary asked.

"What do you mean?" Joe responded, looking at each of his friends.

"It's like you've had your head in the clouds or something," Charles said taking off the doctor's outfit he was wearing. "You did this yesterday also."

"I know! The monster poisoned you or something when he picked you up, and you're losing brain cells!" Cary popped his fake zombie eyes back in, and marched around groaning with his arms stretched out. Joe laughed.

"No, I'm fine, really. I've just had stuff on my mind."

Charles was annoyed. "Alright, but you know what would be mint? If you put your mind to my movie, the dead line is seriously in a couple days."

While Charles was talking to him, Joe noticed that Martin looked like he had something to say, but was holding it in.

The four of them continued to film scenes non stop, and only stopped for lunch prepared by Mrs. Kaznyk.

When they moved from the kitchen table back to the camera, there was two knocks on Charles' front door and Alice walked in. Joe automatically turned all his attention to her. She walked into the room smiling at all of them, but Joe could see that it was mostly directed at him. From behind Joe could hear Charles murmur in a not so frendly tone asking why she was here. Joe was about to turn and face him, and ask him to take that back, but Alice spoke.

"Where's Preston?"

Martin smirked and looked at her like he knew her biggest secret. "He said his mother wanted him home for lunch, he left about an hour ago."

"Yeah, but we all know that was a lie, he's just a wussy and doesn't want to leave his house." Cary said stopping his zombie act.

"Oh ok, well Joe are you ready?" She asked. He nodded and made his way to follow her to the door.

"Wait Joe you can't leave, we still need to film!"

"Sorry Charles, but I have to go." Joe opened the door for Alice and went out after her, leaving Charles with his jaw on the floor. When the door closed behind them Alice grabbed his hand.

"So where are you taking me?"

"Uh," his mind went blank, this was something he honestly didn't think of, "How about, uh, a walk?" He said it like a question and Alice laughed.

"Ok, sounds good." Joe let out a sigh of relief.

He started the date by walking around town. They looked down every street they passed, and each one brought memories and stories which they shared. Some were happy and some, most, were not so. The unhappy ones were most recent, two days ago to be exact. Joe and Alice continued to walk hand in hand, and let their feet take them where they went. They practically told each other their life stories, and were completely absorbed by them until they reached the end of town limits to wide open dry fields.

Joe stopped. "Do you want to stop and go back?"

She shook her head and started walking again. It was her turn to lead as they left paved road to gravel. He had an idea of where she was leading him. They talked about why he was into zombies, going into high school, and each other's friends. Quite a bit of the time they chatted, Joe looked down at their intertwined hands in constant amazement. When he looked up, he recognized where they were. It was different from the last time he had seen it, it was cleaned up, and looked like nothing had ever happened to it, except the fact that the store was missing and replaced by supplies to rebuild it.

It was the site of the wreck.

Their conversation ended, and they walked up to the site in a comfortable silence. Alice walked to a bench that looked like it had survived the crash, and pulled Joe down on to it with her. They both stared out onto the area where the smashed, twisted up train used to lay.

"Amazing isn't it," Alice said, and Joe looked to see that her eyes studied the scene before her with an almost admiration. "How badly the Air Force wanted to hide this, that they got rid of the train and fixed this place up."

"Yeah." Was all he was able to slip out, for he found himself trapped looking at her. As he sat and stared at her, while she looked at the new rail road tracks, he knew that he was going to kiss her on this date. It wasn't a dream, it was a fact

"Hey Joe, do you- "He heard her voice hitch when she turned to him. He didn't notice that he had inched forward ever so slightly that his thigh was touching hers. Her eyes grew wide and Joe winced, pushing himself back.

"Sorry Alice, I didn't mean-"She cut him off.

"No, no it's fine," She scooted to him, "I didn't mind." They stared into each other's eyes. Joe didn't know how long they stayed like that, and he didn't care one bit. He flicked his eyes to her lips many times, and was pleased to see that her eyes did the same to his lips. He leaned to her slowly, and watched as her eyes flickered closed.

His heart had never beaten so fast or loud, it sounded like it was rebounding through the air telling everyone in the world that he was going to kiss Alice Dainard, the most beautiful girl in the 8th grade, now 9th. He slowly shut his eyes, continuing to lean forward, and felt their quick breathing mesh together. He felt their noses softly bump, and then he felt her gentle, soft lips on his. His heart seemed to stop when he touched his lips to hers. He wanted to stay like that forever, but found that he pulled away.

He opened his eyes and saw that Alice still had hers closed. She broke into a grin that made him feel like he was floating. She looked at him with her bright blue eyes and time seemed to freeze. She tilted her head down a little, but kept her eyes still on him giving a look like she wanted more. Alice brought a faint blush to his cheeks, which was rare, and wrapped her arms around his neck. He wanted to ask what she was doing, but he liked having her close, and stopped himself from interrupting.

She brought her lips back to his and kissed him harder than he kissed her. He pulled her closer by placing his arms around her back. Joe had never felt so wonderful, for as long as he could remember. Hours seemed to pass before she pulled away, even if part of him knew it was only a few seconds. He kept his eyes closed, and could feel her head rest on his shoulder. He pulled her even closer, causing her to move her legs across his, and embraced her like her would lose her any minute. They remained like that for much longer than her kiss. After some time, they managed to let go of each other.

"Joe?" He looked at Alice; her eyes were slightly puffy and wet. She took a deep breath and looked down at the ground. He wondered what made her suddenly sad. Did he do something wrong?

"Yes?"

"Don't," a tear slid down her cheek, "Don't leave me, alright?"

Joe never wanted to leave her. He knew he was young, but he knew, with his whole being that he would always want to be with her, at her side.

"I won't, ever, I promise." Her face shined at him, and he wanted to know what the reason was for her question. "But, why did you think that I would?"

Alice wiped away some tears that fell on her cheek.

"I feel like everyone that ever cared about me has left at one point or another. My mother, sometimes my father, I've never really had anyone to trust, and after everything you've done for me, I've never felt so safe.

Joe would do anything for her and risked his life, and lives of his friends for her. He might not know what love felt like, but as he sat on a dirty wooden bench at the place where both of their lives changed forever, he was feeling something more than a crush.

"We should probably get back soon," She grabbed his hand and stood up from the bench, and so did Joe. "Charles is most likely going to kill me for keeping you from his movie, for even this long." Joe gave a small laugh and intertwined his fingers with Alice's.

"You're most likely right." They walked back into town watching the sun start to set. Joe led Alice through different streets than the ones they came from to go back to Charles' house. He guided her onto the street by the graveyard. There were loud noises coming from the graveyard and Joe looked to see that the Air Force surrounded the block. They were pulling parts of the monsters invention out of the underground cave.

"No," It made him uncomfortable to have them there.

"Joe?" He had let go of Alice's hand and walked up to the fence.

"I thought they were gone." He mumbled under his breath.

"Are you ok?" Alice walked up next to him on the fence. He didn't know how to answer her.

"JOE!" Both of them turned to see Charles running down the street.

"Charles! Why are you running? What happened? Joe questioned him.

Charles hunted for air. "They're taking us out one by one!"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that Preston never made it home, Cary never came back after I sent him to get your model train from your house to blow up because I was mad at you, and I watched Martin get snatched waiting outside my house for his parents to pick him up." Charles stopped for more air. "They smashed through my front door and I escaped out the back, and ran as fast as I could to find you! They're still after me! We have to move now!

Before Joe could comprehend what Charles said to them, the sound of large trucks greeted them from both sides of the street. Joe gripped Alice's hand in fear as they were surrounded by armed men jumping out of the trucks.

"We found them."

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><p><strong>Alright, I'm not a big fan of this chapter, but i will tell you guys this, i'm a big fan of foreshadowing, so this chapter remains the way it is.<strong>

**Please review so I know you didn't hate this chapter!**

**P.S. Does any one know where I can find Alice/Joe videos or fanart? I'm dying for some!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you NoelAnderson,Pigfarts is on Mars- xoxo, DazzleDust22, Super8-Lover, Siriusly cool48, and Mitchie for reviewing chapter 4!**

**I'm really sorry for the extreamly long absence! Haven't been able to get on a computer for longer than 2 minutes, literally, for the past two weeks!**

**But don't worry! I was able to plan the next few chapters out on paper and this means quicker update!**

**Also! I want to thank Super8Geek for mentioning me as an inspiration to start writing! It made me sooo happy to read that! Go read "Falling For You" by Super8Geek! It's awesome!**

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><p>Alice watched as Charles attempted to run towards the only available exit of a chain linked fence that created the perimeter of the graveyard. He started to climb over but was pulled off by two of the men from the crowd that prevented Alice, Joe, and Charles from moving. Alice looked around franticly for another way out as Charles disappeared into one of the trucks. She took a step forward and found that she couldn't move farther than that. Turning around she saw that Joe still had her hand. He had blank stare and wasn't moving. Panic made her body shutter looking at him as he held no emotion to the situation. Alice wanted to gain his attention, but felt hands grab her upper arms and they began pulling her away from him. Joe's hand slid out from hers and she instantly felt cold. Alice could hear a soft "No" come from Joe's lips before one of the men spoke.<p>

"We need you to come with us."

"No stop!" She screamed as she approached one of the trucks, "Stop it! Let me go! Joe!"

When she said his name she was already pulled into the truck, and before the doors closed she heard Joe shout out her name, in a way she heard only once before, when parts of a train came her way.

The ride was long and silent. Alice kept her eyes to the floor trying to escape any possibility of making any eye contact to anyone around her. Part of her had thoughts of studying the uniforms they were wearing to see who exactly they were, because from what she saw of them earlier, they were not Air Force. The truck traveled along an unknown road for some time, far past the outskirts of Lillian as the sun completely disappeared and was replaced with night. Eventually the driver slowed the truck and parked.

"Alright let's go."

Her upper arm was grabbed again and she was removed from of the truck. Alice had some things to say to them, but held her tongue. She wanted answers, but had no desire to get into any more trouble than she already was. A large, steel building was in front of her and inside was a long hallway of rooms. As Alice walked down the hallway, she noticed that some of the rooms looked more like cells, with bars for a wall.

What did she do wrong? Her heart started to race. Was she going to be locked away for something that could not have prevented from being involved in?

In the middle of the long hallway was another that split off, and the one holding her turned down it. There was only one door at the end of this one. The door was opened and what was inside surprised her a little.

"Alice!"

She was greeted into the room by four different people. The man holding her let go and left the room, leaving her alone with Charles, Cary, Martin and Preston.

"What's going on?" Alice said swallowing her fear. Martin sat against the wall trying to wipe away tears, Preston was in the only chair wide eyed and unfocused. Only Charles and Cary ran to her when she came in.

"We don't know," said Cary, "Preston has been here the longest, and they never told him."

"I got here a minute before you." Charles looked behind Alice, "Where's Joe? Weren't you grabbed together?" When Alice listened to him she could swear that there was anger in Charles' voice when he mentioned Joe.

"He was…" she drifted off and thought about it. He was right behind her wasn't he? She let her thoughts continue and walked past Charles and Cary, and slid against the wall down to the floor. She gently touched her lips and a small smile formed. Even though she was trapped in a windowless room in a building with security guards, in the middle of nowhere, she couldn't help but think about Joe, and their first date. She was well aware of the confused looks she was receiving from the others, but she didn't care, even if she was smiling while the rest were the opposite.

Alice had known who Joe was her whole life. Always seen him around town or shared a class with him in middle school. Never did she think that he would be her first kiss. It was about a week ago that she borrowed her father's car late at night and pulled up to a curb with a group of boys that she didn't really know. Joe had leaned against the car door looking through the window and made a promise, and she believed him. It was then that she thought he was cute, but nothing more than that, and I didn't help that when she would glance in the rear view mirror he would be looking at her. From that night she formed a crush on Joe, and every day after that she saw him it grew larger. She woke up after being taken by the monster and the first thing she saw was Joe. The fact that he went back to save her rather than save himself, changed her little crush on him; she wanted to be with him. She hugged him, he held her hand, she kissed him on the cheek, and he kissed her on the lips. When Alice was around him she held like she would never be hurt, never be cold, and never be alone.

Fifteen minutes Alice sat thinking about Joe before he was pushed into the room. He was accompanied by many more of the men than the one that brought her. She was able to get a full look of the men. They wore only a dark green uniform, no hats, no pins, no name tags, giving her no information about who was in charge of this. They left the room, and Alice noticed that Joe looked slightly disheveled and carried a small forming bruise on his right cheek bone.

"Joe!" She ran up to him and grabbed his face, rubbing her thumb over his bruise. "What happened?"

He quickly made eye contact with Charles then looked at the floor. "Nothing," he mumbled.

Alice tried to put more authority in her voice. "What happened."

"Did you get in a fight on the way over or something?" Cary piped up in a way that he sounded as if he hoped that Joe did.

"Did they do that to you?" Martin said with puffy eyes and a shaky voice, pointing to the door.

Charles rolled his eyes and took charge. "Really, that doesn't matter right now. Does anyone know why we're here?"

Everyone in the room shook their heads.

"Great," Charles threw his hands in the air. "I guess we're stuck then."

"It's not like we could've helped that!" Cary told Charles.

"Actually, we could have. If Charles didn't absolutely need to film today then we wouldn't be here." Preston said standing up from the chair to walk up to the others.

Charles walked up to Preston. "Stop trying to act like you know better than the rest of us! They found me at my house like I told-"He looked at Joe, then back to Preston. "-you guys!"

As soon as Charles finished talking the door to their room swung open. Alice watched Joe give a small jump, like all of them, then find her hand. A man with graying dark hair and a black suit, guarded by the all too mysterious men in green, walked through the doorway into the room. He moved to the chair, recently vacated by Preston, making a gesture with his hands for the other guards to leave.

The room was silent. Alice wanted to speak up, to know what was going on, but she honestly was scared to; she expected that the rest were in the same predicament as she was. She studied him with the silence. He looked tired, like he had done his job for decades. She saw it in his eyes.

The man in front of them let out a sigh.

"You're all too young for this." He said it under his breath, but they all heard it. He rubbed his forehead and started to talk.

"I know you're scared, and don't want to be here, but you need to listen to me."

Charles stepped forward. "Why should we? You practically kidnapped us from our homes!"

"I told them not too, that there were better ways to find each one of you."

"Well you should have tried harder to tell them," Charles' voice started to rise. Alice had never seen him this angry before. "And is there reason behind why we were even brought here?"

"We just want to protect you."

Alice didn't believe him. "Who is "we", and who are you?"

"Both don't matter." He said still in a calm tone.

"If it doesn't matter," Cary said mockingly, "Why did you hunt us down?"

The man stood up from the chair. "Listen, what the six of you saw has caused you to be in a lot of trouble with the Air Force. The incident in your town is something they don't want to go public, but it has. Yesterday, it reached several of the top national newspapers, and today even more. All sorts of news stations and journalists have tried to reach your town for more information, and the key pieces that they need are you." He pointed at all of them. "Now Air Force wants this hushed up, meaning hushing all of you up too. We were lucky enough to find you, before they did. You may fully disagree with this, I know, but we need you six to stay here until this washes over."

Before he could even finish his last sentence the air was filled with shouting.

"You can't do that!"

"How long will that be?"

"What about our parents?"

"We didn't do anything wrong!"

Alice was furious.

The man walked to the door and knocked on it.

"It's for your own safety."

The door slammed shut behind him.

"I don't get this!" Charles shouted as he started to pace around them.

"I don't trust him." Martin said.

Cary looked at Martin. "Why would you trust him? His whole story was sketchy!"

"But what if," Preston turned to Cary. "What if he was telling the truth?"

Alice looked at Joe wondering why he never said anything. He was staring at the door.

"Hey, are you okay?"

He looked away from the door to Alice. "Yeah, umm…" He looked down at their still locked fingers and let go embarrassed. "I'm fine"

"Are you sure?" She looked at his darkening bruise.

"Yes." She was unhappy with his answer but could tell that it would be best not to question it.

He in turn asked if she was alright.

"No, I'm not. I don't like this and want to get out."

"I'm sorry." Was the only thing he was able to say before Charles over powered them.

"Alice, what side are you, and your friend there, going to pick?" She looked over at him to understand what he was saying. As if there was and invisible line in the floor dividing the room, Charles and Preston stood on one side, while Cary and Martin stood on the other.

Why was Charles being a jerk to Joe? Was there something going on between them that she didn't know?

"Do you believe that that guy is trying to help us or not?"

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><p><strong>Reviews would be amazing!<strong>


	6. Chapter 6

**I would love to thank Super8-Lover, siriusly cool48, NoelAnderson, and Katelle26 for reviewing chapter 5!**

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><p>The room was divided. Joe sat alone with Alice on the back wall, Cary and Martin on the right wall of the room, and Charles and Preston on the left. Joe was the only one left still awake. He didn't understand how they could sleep, when he closed his eyes they would snap back open, like it was scarier to be asleep than awake.<p>

Alice sat sleeping right next to him, with one of her arms linked with his and her head on his shoulder. It could be a reason why he couldn't sleep, but blamed it on the bright lights on the ceiling that they didn't have the power to turn off. They were bright, and continued on without a single flicker.

He was left to study the room, searching to see if he could find a way out, but the only other things in the room, other than a table pushed up against the wall by the only door with one chair, and the ever glowing lights, were four air vents, but they were too small for even Cary to even attempt to fit through.

One thing he wished was in the room was a clock. He had no idea what time it was, and wanted to see if the feeling that it must be late morning was right. It was night fall when he entered the building and several hours after were filled with panic before sleep came. Every hour one of his friends would fall asleep, until it was just him, left with a hypothesis about the time. All of this led to wonder about the unknown state of his father and what he would be doing. The only thing Joe could do was to try and imagine it.

He knew he would have started looking when he came home from a late night at work to find that his son wasn't there. Then most likely went to Charles' house first to find that the front door was smashed down, followed by running to the parents of everyone in the room, and discovering what he feared was true, then after that, Joe really didn't know. Maybe he just didn't know his father that well if he was unable of thinking how his father would find him, out in the middle of nowhere, with little to no clues for even a hint. He was deputy, now sheriff for the meantime, so he had his resources, but Joe felt like he couldn't put all his trust in his Dad to save them, he really couldn't. Joe wanted to, but accepted that this was going to be another thing that he would have to work through with just his friends.

As Joe sat there, he painfully remembered the times he saw his Dad cry, and Joe knew all were for his mother, but he was given one thought from this, would his Dad cry over him?

Joe sighed, pushing it all out of his mind, and continued to think of stupid and completely impossible escape ideas when Alice moved a little in her sleep. He couldn't help but give a small smile, the first one all night, thinking that maybe she talked in her sleep. She started to squirm, and attempt to fight off something that only she could see and Joe dropped his smirk understanding, that this was not a normal thing.

"Alice?" Joe whispered, not knowing if he should wake her.

She let out a small scream.

"Alice?" He said louder, moving her from his shoulder to the floor, and tried to shake her awake as her small scream changed to a loud, piercing, high-pitched cry.

What she was doing was scaring him to death. "Alice! Please! Wake up!"

She didn't.

"Joe! What's wrong with her?"Cary stood beside him and a screaming Alice, so did the others.

"I don't know! Nightmare maybe?"He couldn't think straight.

"Alice!" Joe shouted at her once more as she started to fight him away. Then her eyes finally shot open. She was gasping for breath and trembling. "Are you okay?"

She took a second before shaking her heard that she wasn't, and wrapped her arms around Joe.

"They're," she tried to steady out her breathing, "This one was worse than the others."

"I'm sorry," Joe said in comfort, "I'm sorry."

"What does she mean?" Martin stood over them, resting on his crutches.

"She's been, um," Joe look at Alice for permission to tell everyone in the room and she nodded, still keeping herself around him. "She's having these nightmares."

"What are they about?"

"Preston, I don't know"

"Alice, is the same one reoccurring or different ones?"

"Each one's, well they're," Her eyes kept moving from person to person, uncomfortable with what was going on. She pulled away from Joe and rested her back on the wall, crossing her arms. "I'm fine really. It's just a nightmare."

"Are you sure?" Preston asked.

"Yeah, it's okay." She said in a tone that made it obvious that she wanted to be left alone.

Joe watched everyone leave and go back to where they were before. He realized how everyone quickly gathered to help her.

"Hey Joe, I'm sorry." Alice pulled her knees up to her chest and folded her arms around them.

"Why?" He said sitting against the wall next to her.

She looked out ahead of her. "I'm usually not so helpless like I have been lately."

Joe knew that, she had always had a tough personality, one of the reasons she was so popular at school.

He looked toward her. "I think we're all a little helpless right now."

She agreed.

The room grew back to the familiar silence, and the only one talking at all was Cary, who was telling Martin about the one time he set fire to his math book. Joe heard Alice giggle every once in a while throughout the story he remembered vividly. Cary's parents were out of town, like they often were, and Joe was hanging out at his house after school. Cary started to rant about how math was a waste of time, ending in putting a lighter to his math book. The whole thing would have been an easy to put out if he didn't drop it on the floor, resulting in him burning half of his living room. Joe found it easy to laugh about it now, but not when it happened.

As Cary told how it happened, Joe didn't see the famed, firework holding backpack usually attached to his short, blonde friend. It must have been left at Charles house, but knowing Cary, he would probably still have something to create fire on him.

The interesting story was cut short when the door to the room was opened. The same man in the same suit walked in. He made eye contact with all of them before talking.

"I know, the night was rough, but how about some lunch?"

It wasn't until he said it that Joe discovered how starving he was.

Charles and Preston left the room first, then Martin and Cary. Joe slowly stood up from the floor with Alice and let her leave the room first. When he went out the door the man grabbed Joe by the collar and whispered in his ear.

"Don't you dare try to pull any monkey business like you did yesterday." He patted the bruise on Joe's cheek before pushing him forward.

Joe looked at his friends and was relieved that they saw nothing of what just happened.

It was long trip through the building until they reached a room that looked much like the middle school's cafeteria. The food they were given was even on trays and looked like the same thing they would have eaten at school. What was most surprising when they entered the room was that they wouldn't be alone. There were half a dozen people in grey sweats scattered around the tables. The people stared at them as they got food, broke into their three groups, and found seats. Joe ate some of the food, but found that he mostly just poked at it. Alice was doing the same. From across the cafeteria Joe could see and feel the glare he was getting from Charles. After some time Charles walked over the trash can to dump his tray and Joe left his table and went over to Charles to see what his problem was.

He was not happy to see Joe, but he didn't care. "I don't understand why you won't talk to me."

Charles didn't look at him. "Don't be stupid, you know why."

Joe shifted his weight from foot to foot putting his hands in his pockets. "Is this because of Alice?"

"Half of it, yeah."

"Just tell me what your problem is."

"Well first off, yes I'm mad at you about Alice. I told you that I liked her, and I thought you would back off and be my friend, like you always do, but look, you have her clinging all over you!"

Joe said nothing.

"But most of it is that you ditched me to hang out with her. You promised me before summer started that you would help me finish my movie, but no!" His voice started to rise and Joe quickly checked around the room to make sure they weren't gaining any attention.

"I am helping you finish your movie; I just took one afternoon for myself."

Charles scoffed and walked away, leaving Joe alone.

Joe sighed and met Alice by the door.

"Did you solve whatever is going on between you and Charles?"

"Nope."

She said nothing more about it, and he was extremely grateful for that she didn't.

One of the men in green escorted Alice and him back to the room. When they entered there were two cots and a battered deck of cards on the table that recently were added to the room.

Alice moved her eyes over the cot, then to Joe.

"I know you got no sleep what so ever last night, so take one before the rest come."

He was exhausted and really wanted sleep. "Are you sure?"

She laughed at him. "Yes! Now go to bed!"

Joe just smiled at her. She smiled back and threw her arms around his neck, and brought her lips to his.

It was a short kiss, but it still gave him butterflies, and knew that it always would.

"Go to sleep." She said stepping back from him.

He laid down on the cot, and she went to the table and picked up the cards. Joe thought it would take long to fall asleep, but as soon as he rolled onto the side facing the wall, he was out.

He should have known that it would have been better to stay awake.

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><p><strong>Alright, thought I would update sooner, but wrote a completely different chapter 6 and the one here would be chapter 7.<strong>

**The chapter I did write was from Jackson Lamb's POV, but I seriously sat there for days looking at it wondering if I wanted to add another POV through out the story. I really really wanted too but... I don't know. Give me your thoughts!**

**Review!**

**(And NoelAnderson... I am going to give you a smiley face : ), and I hope that my story isn't becoming to predictable!) **


	7. Chapter 7

**Thank you NoelAnderson, Super8-Lover, siriusly cool48, rau, annoyingnicegirl, Waiting, and Keyblade Master Timaeus for reviewing chapter 6!**

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><p>"You have got to be kidding me!" Cary shouted tossing his cards onto the table.<p>

Alice just smiled still showing her cards to the boys around the table, and then grabbed the remaining pocket change, buttons, and other bits of junk they could find to use for bets.

"I mean come on! Is your Dad a gambler or something? Honestly I don't know how you've been able to beat me 9 out of 15 times!" He groaned and dropped his head on the table.

"Nope." She continued to smirk.

"Are you sure?" Preston asked next to her. "The probability of you managing to beat us on your first time playing poker is very, very unlikely." He amplified 'very', and beat his hand on the table with the repeated word.

Alice laughed at them before speaking in the most convincing tone she could assemble. "This is my first time; I honestly never knew how to play until a couple of hours ago when you guys taught me!"

The response she got was a deep sigh from her left. "Okay, sure." Martin mumbled. Alice slapped him on the arm.

"I'm telling the truth! I'm just lucky!"

Martin sighed again rubbing his arm and giving Alice a small glare. "Fine, Cary deal out the cards."

Cary slowly picked up his head and gathered every one's cards. He took his time to snarl at her.

"You better watch it; I am going to win this one."

Alice started playing round 16. She actually never played the card game before, but her Dad has. He wasn't a serious gambler; occasionally he would invite guys from work and the bar over to the house to play a game or two. On those nights she remained trapping herself in her bedroom or remained away from home until late at night. She always tried to be as invisible as possible when her Dad and his friends were drunk.

"It's a good thing Charles and Joe aren't playing." Cary brought up, studying his cards, sitting on the stolen metal stand to the second cot with Martin. Charles had the mattress part of the cot pulled up to a corner of the room, and gave the appearance of being in a deep sleep, but Alice was completely unsure about it by the way he moved every so often.

She looked away from Charles to Cary. "Why?"

"In the end it always turns into a competition between them, and it's not much fun to play when they get competitive." Martin said as he looked up from his hand.

"Happens every time," Cary said before he burst into laughter. "Hey do you remember that time we got half the class to play cards with us during English? Oh that was awesome!"

The three of them broke into an excited conversation about the memory, and Alice drifted her attention away from the boys by her. She started to wonder about what had been mainly troubling her mind, for most of the time she had been playing cards, she was watching Joe. He was still sleeping on a cot on the other side of the room, but as she watched him, she saw that every once in a while he would jerk or twitch in his sleep.

Cary's voice brought her back to the table. "That was the first time Joe got detention too, his Dad was so mad when he picked him up from school."

"Oh, I remember! We all thought he was going to kill him in the parking lot!"

"No Preston, only you thought that."

"Shut up Cary!"

Alice looked at her cards and placed them on the table.

Groans and unhappy faces surrounded her, giving Cary a chance to shout out at her. "What! How Alice, how!"

"Like I said, I'm lucky."

"Bull."

"Yeah, um, Alice I'm having a hard time believing you also."

"Just like when you said you believed the suit guy." Cary directed this to Preston.

"I, well," He stammered avoiding every one's eyes. "It's Charles' fault!"

"It is not!"

"He would have dislocated my shoulder or something if I didn't go on his side, you know how he is!"

"Yes we know how he is, but you could have stood up to him, look at us," Cary pointed his finger around the table to Alice, Martin, and himself. "We pushed him aside and were fine! Gosh Preston, gain some guts."

"I'm sorry guys!"

"Yeah sure, whatever."

Alice could see the frustration grow on Preston's face before he spoke up.

"Why are you shouting at me for going on Charles' side? What about Martin!" He pointed towards him. "He was the one who ratted to Charles about Joe and-" Preston stopped talking, his eyes shooting to Alice, then quickly away. Now she knew that she really was missing something.

"What are you talking about?" Alice asked.

Preston fidgeted. "Nothing."

"Good going." Cary elbowed him in the ribs.

The uncomfortable atmosphere started to grow, and Alice opened her mouth to say something once more, when the door opened.

The men in green were back. They said it was dinner. Alice watched Preston leave the table and wake up Charles. Cary stood and started to walk to Joe when Alice stopped him.

"I'll get him, you guys go." All but Charles nodded and left the room with a few of the men.  
>She was nervous as she crossed the room to Joe. She had a guess of what he saw while he slept, and hoped more than anything that she would be far away from that guess. She leaned over the boy, pushing her fallen golden hair behind her ear. A deep breath was all she was able to do for herself as she reached out a hand and placed it on Joe's shoulder.<p>

"Joe" She said it as a whisper. He remained still. Alice heard an impatient sigh escape from one of the men at the door. She moved her lips closer to his ear. "Joe, it's time to wake up."  
>His eyes flicked open in wonder, searching everything before him until his eyes found Alice. His burning questions, surprise, and fear reflected from them. With that look, she knew what was wrong, what he saw, and what he needed. He took a few steady breaths before making a sound, but Alice stopped him.<p>

"You don't have to talk about it." She knew she would not want to talk about it, and she didn't. Some of it she told Joe, but not all, she didn't want to. "Come on" Alice grabbed his hand and led him out of the room.

The cafeteria was the same for dinner as it was for lunch, bleak, lonely, and colorless. It had the same people as before, in the same places, with the same emotionless expressions. Alice pushed around the food on her tray. It looked like the same frozen meatloaf her father would get when he came home late from work, it made her uneasy. Across from her Joe did the same thing with his food. The rest of the boys were eating and holding a quite conversation with each other. Alice looked back to Joe from his friends to see if she could make eye contact to him, as he remained transfixed to look down on his tray for most of the dinner, but as she did so, something different caught her eye.

A man sitting two tables behind Joe was looking at her. She found it strange. Alice stayed sitting for several minutes watching the man, who looked like he wanted to say something to her, then she stood up. Every pair of eyes in the room followed her as she walked to the man. She sat down at his table, and he didn't say anything but look at her. She realized that maybe this was another thing that wasn't fully thought through. A hand was on her shoulder and her name was said, but she just shrugged off the concerned Joe. He sat down beside her, and then the man talked.

"How old are the both of you?"

Alice answered first. "14."

"13." Joe said fidgety.

Across from them he gave a small chuckle. "You certainly are young ones to be here, that's for sure. Haven't seen anyone you're ages in years."

As he said it Alice could see the years he lived written on his face, the wrinkles, the tired eyes, and even the grayed hair.

"Excuse me, but how long have you been here." It was Joe who asked the question.

Sadness filled the eyes of the old man, yet he smiled. "The year is 1979, correct?" They nodded at him. "Then I've been in here for 34 years."

Something heavy felt like it was placed on Alice's shoulders.

"What?" Charles seemed to be eavesdropping, for he stormed over to the table, and slapped his palms to the table. "You're not really telling the truth are you? There is no way on this planet that you have been stuck in this hell of a building for all that time!" His frustration shattered the friendly manner the man was holding.

"Yes, I believe that's true."

Charles flopped down onto one of the seats. "We need to find a way out of here."

"Don't worry about that too much; you guys should be out of here soon."

"Wait a minute," Cary joined the table, with Martin and Preston following. "What did you say?"

The man moved his eyes around the table to all of them, with the smallest of smiles. "School starts soon doesn't it, you all have friends, family, and it would be strange if you start missing school, wouldn't it? They have always been weird about that, the people that run this prison, they don't want you missing an education, or a second chance to start over, in a way. You six aren't the first ones in here, I've seen kids come through here for knowing government secrets, witnessing terrorist attacks, shoot, even my children for crying out loud!"

"Your children!" Alice didn't mean to shout it, but she did. "What happened?"

"You don't want to hear an old man's story."

"Please?" She said it as sincere as she could, and he told his story.

Alice sat on the edge of the cot Joe previously slept on. Her mind running with the things she heard only an hour ago. All of the trials the old man went through, how his simple fault brought his family here, only for them to leave him behind and never know anything of their lives beyond cement walls encasing him. His hopes that his children were able to grow up without any troubles, his wife remarried and is happy, and mostly that they forgave him. These things continued to conflict with her, as with the others she noticed, for the room was muted. It wasn't long before Charles took the initiative to bring up something else that the man said.

"Only a couple weeks."

"Dude, what?" Martin asked.

"It's only a couple weeks until school starts."

Preston took his turn to speak. "No, more than just a couple weeks, almost two months."

Cary rolled his eyes. "It sounds better when you say weeks, okay?

"Will you guys stop?" Charles was obviously irritated. "Think about it, if that man out there is right, we will be out of here soon. We can go home finally." Almost the instant he stopped talking the room lightened up, and there was a sense of joy. It was as if there was never a complication for them being in the prison like building in the first place. The boys playful teasing and familiar bickering came back. It all was the same, excepted for one of them. Joe slowly walked to the cot and sat down next to her.

"Um, Alice? I don't know if, uh-" He was nervous. "-if this is happening to you, because it is to me, and I know you said that I don't have to talk about it, but I feel like I need to, well, are your nightmares not just nightmares? More like," He continued to struggle for words. "Like you're being haunted?"

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><p><strong>Alllllright! So, I'm really sorry for not updating this sooner! Silly life got in the way! <strong>

**Ok, First- I really like writing this story, so I won't quit on it, I'll write it until the end!**

**Second- I have no idea what kind of Super 8 story everyone wants out there, so I'm writing a story that I would want to read, and that means this story will get a little dark. All of the stories I write end up like that, haha I don't really know why! I hope you won't have a problem with that!**

**Third- If I'm not updating fast enough... TELL ME! Please! Review, PM, or whatever so I will be pressured to update!**

**I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS CHAPTER!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Thank You to every one who reviewed and read this story! You are all amazing!**

**A bunch of people recomended that Joe and Alice have more alone time and that seemed to bring me out of my REALLY long writers block! This is just ONE chapter based more on them! Enjoy! **

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><p>It was dark. Nothing could be seen, nothing could be felt, but as Joe stood there, he knew he wasn't alone. He didn't like it all and started to run, there wasn't a sound. He was scared of something he couldn't even be heard, yet he knew it was there. This caused him to run harder and faster. Then before he could comprehend it, something got his ankle, bringing Joe smashing down to the ground. He pushed his body up from the floor with his arms, but his right leg was suspended and stuck in the air. He was picked up and lifted upside down, higher and higher. He came to a stop, hearing a familiar audible growl, which sounded too much like a dark laugh for his liking, before he was let go.<p>

Joe woke up for the second time that night. The room was bright, causing him to be momentarily blind and not sure if he was still sleeping or not, but the comfort that helped him believe he was awake was from the blond sharing his small cot. He found that his arm was wrapped around her waist, but didn't remember placing it there before he fell asleep. Did he put it there, or did she?

Either way, Joe quickly pulled away thinking about that chance Alice could wake up and question him about it.

He sat up and yawned, stretching his arms out and up towards the lights they still don't know how to turn off. Seeing that once again he was the only one awake, he let out a soft sigh and walked to the single lonely table. He moved the scattered cards into a pile to see the scratches on the table counting the days all six of them have been in the room. Alice thought it was silly to keep track of the days, but the rest of them were too anxious to not count.  
>Joe recounted the scratches like he does every morning and added a new one with a nail they pulled out from under the chair. 49 days all together. Time was almost up. Joe turned around to look at Alice. She laid there looking as beautiful as she always does every morning.<p>

They were all taken care of; everything they need was there for them. From showers to band-aids, but what Joe really wanted was to have time by himself with Alice. He wished he could take her somewhere, like another date, to make her feel special. Joe sighed at the idea and sat down at the table, turning his back to Alice. He rested his head on the table on top of his folded arms and used this rare moment of silence to let his mind wonder or at least he tried too. The nightmare that he woke up from just moments ago wouldn't leave him alone. The nightmares were normal, they happened every night, but this one was different, like it had happened once before.

Joe's thoughts were halted when icy hands gently touched his back. The hands glided up to his shoulders then he received a clear 'Good Morning' and a kiss on the cheek. Alice then grabbed his hand and sat on the table by him with a very bright smile. Joe loved it when she woke up before the rest. Only a second passed before they realized they were not by themselves.

"UGH! Mother and Father are being affectionate! Bury your faces!" Cary's voice was  
>unmistakable. Joe turned his head towards the rest the see all four of his friends with blankets pulled over their heads or pillows blocking their eyes.<p>

"Oh stop it!" Alice stomped over to their side of the room and stood by Cary's cot, pushing the pillow away from him.

He started to laugh in a joking like manner. "I knew you two weren't just saying hello in the morning!" Cary looked at Joe and winked. "And now you're caught! Good thing too, because I bet thing were going to get a whole lot worse!"

Joe watched Alice blush a soft pink. She looked toward the door and almost as if she commanded it, the door opened.

"Time for breakfast!" she shouted to everyone in the room, even Joe.

Martin rolled out of his cot with his leg completely healed. "Coming Mom!" He laughed. "I mean ma'am!"

Alice gaped at Cary, Martin, Preston and Charles, who found that to be very amusing. Joe thought it was funny also, and knew that it was best not to join in, but couldn't help it and let a smile crack.

"Joseph Lamb!" She shouted and walked towards him.

"Run!" Charles screamed behind her and the boys ran out the open door.

Before Joe, Alice got extremely close, almost bumping into his nose. "What was it you found so humorous?"

He swallowed and avoided her eyes. "Well, uh, you were kind of acting like a mother there." When Joe looked back at her he expected her to be angry at him, but he found the opposite. Her bright blue eyes glowed as she locked his full attention to her.

"Hmm," She hummed. "Mother...well I was looking for maybe girlfriend first!"

This caught Joe by surprise, running too many different thoughts through his head, but the main one was that she wanted him as a boyfriend.

"Do, um, you want me to ask you out?" As soon as he said it he realized that he said it too bluntly.

She laughed at him a little. "We have sort of been going out for the last month or more, don't you think?"

"Oh," He laughed with her. "I guess we have!"

Joe was a little nervous about this. Alice Dainard was to become his first girlfriend, that girl that was always in his dreams; this was something he wanted to remember forever. He stood up from the chair he had been sitting in and reached out for both of Alice's hands. She let her shade of color creep back on to her cheeks, and it made Joe joyful, it showed that she really cared. He looked straight into the blue of her eyes again, one of the things about her that he will never ever forget.

"Alice," He breathed in deep and calm. "Will you be my girlfriend?"

Joe could feel his heart pause waiting for what was next.

She lend in closer, wrapping her arms around his neck, saying one simple word, "Yes." and caused Joe's breath disappear as she kissed him like she's never kissed him before.

The next week soared before Joe faster than time has ever gone in the room. It was actually fun. Ever since he asked Alice out she loved to pull him aside from everyone for what she would call as 'secret kisses' every chance she had. They were always short because one of the four boys would be looking for them or the group would be on their way back from a meal, but Joe enjoyed them none the less.

The now 56 days in the room started to change everyone, mostly for the boys as they started to irritate each other quicker each day. This was described by Preston as a form of cabin fever, but he said it usually happens when someone is by themselves, so naturally no one believed him or cared to listen to his theories. Martin was able to remove his cast from his leg, and truthfully became less of a pain because he wasn't able to trip anyone with his crutches anymore. Cary stayed his same self through all of this, hyper and loud. Charles seemed to go through an emotional roller coaster. He started out mad at Joe, and then missed him, before getting homesick and short-tempered, then lastly incredibly content and his old original character. That happened to be bossy and always in control.

"Tomorrow is a big day you guys!" Cary shouted as soon as the door closed shut behind him.

Joe looked up from the table, as well as Alice, Charles, Martin and Preston.

"What gives you that feeling?" Charles asked.

Cary paced back and forth. "Well I was walking back from the bathroom and I heard a couple of people talking around the corner, so naturally I eavesdropped and basically they said that tomorrow would be a very important day for the six of us!"

Preston's ear seemed to perk up at the sound of this. "Okay, usually I wouldn't listen to Cary but school is going to start soon, so maybe tomorrow really is important!"

"Oh keep dreaming." Charles said in a flat tone.

"Hey," Martin exclaimed. "Maybe Cary's story is true!"

Cary grinned. "Thanks Smartin!"

"Shut up!"

Alice looked at Cary. "What else did you hear?"

"A chunk of it was their own personal lives, but they were talking about how they finally get to do some work and don't need to babysit anymore."

"Like what kind of work?" Joe questioned.

Charles answered this. "Drive us home?"

"Oh that would be gnarly!" Cary shouted, and then ran over to his bed. "I'm going to bed now so I can find out what it is so sooner!"

Joe watched as the rest nodded their heads in agreement, seeing as it was sometime after dinner. He personally had a dreadful feeling about the idea of tomorrow and didn't want to go to bed. Alice changed his mind though. After the boys were in bed she grabbed his arm pulling him to their cot. He was rather glad that he got to share his cot with Alice, because there was at first two cots, and then they all begged for more and got one. It was two people to a cot.

Morning came quick. Joe's nightmare was different than the ones before. He was completely alone this time. It made him feel miserable, but he just shrugged it off. He thought of this all before noticing that Alice was talking to him and trying to get him up because it was time for breakfast. He slept in. That was a first.

Breakfast was rushed by his eager roommates, who nearly ran to the cafeteria and back. Joe only listened and tried to feel included with them, but he just pushed his food around and remained trapped in his own head. Not long after they entered back into their room with smiles on their faces did Alice begin to feel sick. Next the same symptoms occurred to Charles, Martin, Cary and Preston, but not Joe.

"Was it something we ate?" Alice wondered.

Charles looked over at Joe, who looked same as always. "We all had the same thing to eat, right? What didn't you eat that we did?"

"Oh, I didn't actually eat anything, I didn't want to." Joe responded, but just as the last word left his mouth Alice became pale and Joe went over to her. He was about to ask if she was okay when she let out a quiet 'Oh' and fell limp, falling unconscious. A moment after this the door opened and that man in the suit stood under the doorway.

"It's been a long time since I've seen you all," He said as the men in the green outfits started to fill the room. "I know it's not much of a very nice way to say hello again to make you all feel sick, but it needs to be done. "

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><p><strong>I tried as best as I could to make Alice and Joe act like they're really 13 and 14!<strong>

**I hoped you liked this chapter!**

**Reviews with your thoughts would be spectaular!**


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